“You know you can tell me anything, Jesus,” she spoke in Spanish again, and I met her eyes. She had interrupted my thoughts about Valentina, but I wanted to have a conversation with her that I had never dared before. I believed it was time. I couldn’t just sweep the subject under the rug anymore. Maybe it was the fact that Valentina was back, but I needed to know answers.
“Mom, why did dad sell me to Muerte Viviente? You don’t have to talk about it if it’s too painful for you,” I said and aimlessly dug at the threads on the side of my jeans. Around my mother, I always felt like a small boy again, and now especially since she was watching me so keenly. Her lips quivered as she spoke, even though I could tell that she was trying to keep her head held high.
“He owed them money,” she said flatly, and I looked up at her. My brows crossed and she shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s as simple as that, mijo. Your father gambled, he drank a lot…you know all this. Well, he borrowed heavily from Muerte Viviente and couldn’t pay them back. Romero Luis made a deal with your father, claiming that all his debts would vanish if he traded you in for his fighting rings,” mom’s voice was cracking again as she spoke and I reached for her. She slid over the edge of the couch as she clung to me and I could feel my jacket wetting where she was crying on my shoulder. I patted her back as her body shook.
“I tried to stop him, mijo. I wish I could!”
“I know you tried, and I also know what kind of man he was,” I comforted her. The purpose of this conversation wasn’t to remind my mom how she had failed me as a parent, and it was because I wanted to know the truth. Nobody had ever told me how Romero got a hold of me, but I always had the feeling that my dad owed the man something.
“The gang forced us…forced your father, just like they are doing it to Romero now,” she cried, and I pulled away from her. I knew she still had some friends whose husbands and children were associated with the Muerte Viviente, but I didn’t think she would know what was going on with Valentina.
“What do you mean, mom?” I asked her, pretending like I had no idea what she was talking about. If she even got a hint that I was hiding Valentina, that I was associating myself with anyone from the Muerte Viviente gang, I knew she would lose her mind with worry. Gone would be her peaceful nights of sleep.
Mom wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands and took in a deep breath as she tried to steady herself.
“Well, Romero is now the one who is in debt, and he got kicked out of the leadership of the gang when he fell sick,” she said, hardening her voice. If I hated Romero Luis and the gang, I knew that she hated them more.
“So, he owes them money, and they’re going to make him pay, right?” I urged her on, and she shook her head. A certain wildness had entered her eyes.
“As far as I know, they’ve already cut a deal. Do you remember, his beautiful young daughter, Valentina?” she asked, looking up at me with a vengeance in her eyes. Any pain that the Muerte Viviente caused to Romero Luis would be vengeance for what they had done to me. She had no idea of my relationship with Valentina, so she didn’t know how this could affect me in turn too.
“Yeah, I remember her,” I said, and mom threw her head back and laughed. I had to clench my hands so that I didn’t reach for her and shake her. The words “cut a deal” were fresh in my mind. I didn’t want to hear what I knew she was about to say.
“Romero is trading his daughter for the debt. They’re going to sell her off into the flesh trade or something; I don’t know…I don’t care. I just want that family to burn in Hell!” she snapped, and I could see the fire erupting in her eyes. Nobody was crueler than a mother whose child is harmed, and she was one such mother, and I couldn’t blame her for it.
“Are you saying that Romero Luis arranged for his daughter to be kidnapped?” I asked, standing up from the rug. Mom looked up at me, and the fury was still in her eyes.
“What else would you expect from a man like him?” she said.
xxx
I burst into Moira’s guest room and found Valentina still in bed. She was naked under the covers but had her eyes open. Fuck, she looked gorgeous! The way the light pouring into the room caught the edges of her chestnut hair and set it on fire! I gulped, to steady myself. She looked over at me, her face morphing into a smile. She thought I had returned to take her into my arms, to make love to her again.
“Jesus…” she said huskily and reached out a hand towards me. I was almost tempted to comply. Tempted to forget about the real reason I was here and just pull her into my arms again.
Instead, I stood with my legs parted at the door, my nostrils flaring with rage and my fists clenched on either side.
“Your father pawned you for money,” I growled, looking at her from under my heavy lids. I could feel the fire smoking out of my nostrils as I glared at her. Valentina’s expression changed, she pulled the covers up to her breasts and moved herself to sit up in bed.
“What are you talking about, Jesus?” she said and I took a few steps towards her.
“You heard what I just said. He wrote to you, knowing that you would come back here. He set up a deal with Muerte Viviente and Juan to trade you for the debt,” I said through gritted teeth as I edged closer to her.
Valentina’s eyes were wide, and she looked aghast. Another second and I predicted she would burst into tears.
“I didn’t expect this from you, Jesus,” she said instead, in a low guttural voice and I crossed my brows.
She still had the covers clutched to her breasts, and I could see her bare shoulders quivering with anger.
“I know Papi hurt you, and he shouldn’t have. I know Papi did things that I could never forgive him for…but this, what you’re claiming…he would never do this to me!” she shrieked and I took in a deep breath of anger. I couldn’t believe that she was siding with him. After everything I had already done for her, after everything he had done to me…how could Valentina not believe me?
“Your father was and is an evil man, Valentina, and it’s a shame that you don’t see him for who he is,” I growled, and she snapped her head away from me. She didn’t want to look at me anymore.
“My father is capable of a lot of things, but trading his daughter to pay off a debt…he would never do that. He has pride, and he’s an arrogant man. Give him some credit for that!” she cried, and I clenched my jaw. I wanted to hold her and console her. I knew the feeling…of realizing that your own father has betrayed you, is selling you off in exchange for a debt. I had been through it myself, but the fact that she didn’t even believe me was too much for me to gulp down.
“You know what the Muerte Viviente are capable of, and he knows it too. At this point, he will probably do anything to get out of their debt. He used to be the one giving out the fucking orders. He knows exactly what their next step would be if he doesn’t pay off the debt somehow,” I barked at her and Valentina looked back at me, her eyes watery and burning as she stared.
“You’re saying that he tricked me into coming here?”
“He is sick, that much is true, but he might have exaggerated the extent of his illness,” I said, and she shook her head in anger.
“How could you even suggest such a thing?” she howled.
The answer was simple. I had been on the other side of Romero Luis’ wrath. I knew exactly what he was capable of. I wasn’t even surprised when my mother told me, and I was just upset that I hadn’t figured it out sooner.
“Valentina…you have to trust what I’m saying,” I said and took a step towards her.
“I don’t trust you, Jesus. I don’t trust you at all!” she snapped and our eyes met in a fury. She wasn’t lying. She didn’t trust me anymore. She had chosen her confidence in her father, over her trust in me. She had to leave town. She had to run away from home to get away from her father…how could she possibly be on his side now?
“It’s amazing…after everything that’s happened…that you don’t trust me anymore,” I said, making a last
attempt even though I knew that the battle was already lost.
She jerked up, making sure that the covers stayed in place.
“I’m his daughter, Jesus. I’m his blood. He would never do something like this to me. And you…you’re just a man, like every other man in the world. You want nothing more than my body. I know how gangs work, how the MC world functions. When you tire of my body, you’ll leave me to wither away, just like all your friends do…” her voice was firm, and yet her eyes were watery as she spoke.
I couldn’t reply to that. Not after she had already made up her mind. Ten years I had pined for her, and now she was turning me away because I had told her the truth about her father.
“You can stay here as long as you need, Valentina,” I said and turned around to walk to the door, hoping the whole time that she would stop me in my tracks. She didn’t, and I was gone.
Fuck it! I told myself. I needed to buy my mother milk and eggs anyway.
Chapter 12
Valentina
I was shaking in bed after Jesus left. I felt empty inside like a massive hurricane had hit the room and stripped me of all my possessions and my soul and everything. His words kept ringing in my ears. Papi had arranged the kidnapping, and he was the one who made Juan keep me prisoner. What were they going to trade me for?
I jumped out of bed and started collecting my discarded clothes off the floor. No, I didn’t believe him. Jesus was lying to me. The last words that I had lashed at him…I didn’t mean any of them. They had come spilling out of me from somewhere, from an unknown place. I shouldn’t have said those things to him. Not after everything he had done for him.
I started changing into the pajamas, my hands still shaking as I tried to smoothen the clothes over my body. The body that Jesus had touched. I could still feel his arms around me. His thrusts. My legs quivered from the soreness of the sex we had last night.
I shook my head, trying to get those thoughts out of my head. No, he was lying to me.
I was in a battle with myself. I didn’t want to believe what he had told me, Papi would never do such a thing to me. But what reason did Jesus have, to lie to me? Did he hate Papi that much? That he would try and turn me against him?
The man I knew…the boy I knew from ten years ago, would have done anything to keep me safe. I would have trusted him with my life and everything else back then. Why couldn’t I trust him again? Was I that afraid of getting hurt?
I tried to strengthen myself against him, and I slipped out of Moira’s guest room. She didn’t seem to be in the apartment, and I walked over to the living room and found her cell phone on the kitchen counter.
My mind was conflicted between calling Jesus and calling someone else. He had left his phone number with me earlier so that I could get in touch with him if I needed. I wanted to hear his voice. I wanted to call him and beg him for forgiveness. The truth was that there was nobody else I wanted to trust. Why had I lashed out at him? Was it because I couldn’t fathom the thought that Papi would do something like that to me? Was it because I was taking out my anger against Papi on him?
I picked up Moira’s phone and began to dial a number.
I remembered it by heart. Paola’s phone.
I hadn’t spoken to her in ten years either. We were kids back then when she got involved with the gang. Her father had been a low-rung member, who Papi used to kick around but Paola stuck with the gang. She always had plans on manipulating one of the gang members into a relationship with her. Even as a teenager, she kept her eyes on the prize. While I was falling in love with Jesus, Paola was sleeping around with the guys in the gang, trying to decide whose baby to have so that she could secure them for life.
I knew she had her eyes on Juan, and now I wondered if she was still in town, if she was still in association with the gang. We had been friends back then, and I knew there was a possibility that she wouldn’t want to be friends anymore. But girls looked out for each other, and I wondered if there was a chance that she could help me. Either way, there was nobody else I could turn to in this town anymore, especially since Jesus had washed his hands of me too. It was a flight to fight mode for me.
The phone kept ringing, and I mumbled under my breath for her to pick up. I didn’t even know if she used the same number anymore.
“Ya,” Paola’s voice was the same…screechy and high pitched and I recognized it immediately. She sounded like she was chewing a piece of gum.
“Oh, my God! Paola…it’s Valentina,” I cried into the phone, wiping tears from my cheeks. I was relieved to hear her voice, even though I didn’t know what to expect.
“Valentina! Oh, my God!” she was bursting with energy on the other end.
“I’m so sorry we haven’t spoken in years. I just didn’t know who else to call,” I cried.
“I heard what happened to you, girl. That’s crazy! Juan is going nuts here,” Paola’s voice was suddenly hushed, and I could sense that she was locking herself up in a room somewhere, to get away from prying ears.
“Listen…where are you? Are you safe?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m safe…I can’t tell you where I am, but I want to see you. I need to find out what’s really going on,” I said and kept my eye on the door as I spoke to her. I knew that Moira or Jesus or anyone from the Rogue Rebels would not be happy to know that I had gotten in touch with someone from the gang.
“Okay, yeah, we should meet. I’m so happy that you managed to escape, girl. I was so happy when I heard that,” she said and laughed, and I could tell that her laugh was genuine. No matter how much she wanted to have a baby with some asshole from the gang, her loyalties still lay with the welfare of a friend.
“Yeah, I got lucky. I’ll call you again, and we can set up a meeting, okay? I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page,” I said to her.
“Of course, girl. These fuckers need to know that they can’t treat us like this,” she said.
We said our goodbyes and I cut the call. Speaking to Paola had made me feel a little better. Even though, the truth was that I knew I was trying to compensate for the big gaping hole that Jesus had left when he walked out half an hour ago.
Chapter 13
King
I knew I was lost without her. I could feel it in my bones. However, Valentina had made it very clear to me that she had chosen her father over me. She didn’t even want to believe what I told her, she was blinded by her loyalty to her family, and I couldn’t blame her. But did she not see that Romero was dangerous? That he could hurt her again?
I left my Moria’s apartment and rode straight to the bar. No Church had been called today, but I went anyway, and as much as I’d predicted, Commando and Girth were there, drinking.
“Where have you been, brother?” Girth called out to me as they saw me approaching them at the bar counter.
“Had some things to take care of,” I replied gruffly and sat down at the bar. A bottle of beer was slid down to me as usual, and I took a large gulp.
“Were you with Valentina?” Girth added with a laugh, and I looked up and caught Commando studying me. I clenched my jaw at him, just as a group of some of the other members walked in and Girth got up to go and greet them.
“All good in Paradise?” Commando said, now that we were both alone.
“It’s hardly Paradise,” I replied to him, and took another gulp of the beer.
“What happened between you two?” Commando asked, and I gripped the bottle tighter in my hand.
“I rescued her from her prisoners. You know what happened,” I said gruffly because I wasn’t in the mood to have a chat about Valentina.
“No, I mean what happened between you two before? You seem like you know her well,” Commando said and I looked over at him, my eyes burning up with anger. I hoped that she was all right. I hoped that she hadn’t been stupid enough to leave Moira’s place where she was safe. No matter what she thought of me, I still worried about her. I wouldn’t ever stop worrying about her.
&nbs
p; “She was the boss’ daughter, and she left town to get away from this life. And she stayed away and shouldn’t have come back. That’s what happened,” I said and took in a deep breath. The reality was just sinking in. That was the truth, wasn’t it? What was I thinking to believe that there could be anything more between us? Why had I been foolish enough to believe that she would choose me over her own family?
“She came back for you?” Commando’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“She came back for her Papi!” I snapped, and I was glaring at my friend. This conversation was only reminding me of all the stupid decisions I had made in my life. How stupid I had been to pine for a woman I could never have, for all these years.
“Has she called him yet?” Commando asked, and my mouth clamped shut in confusion. I had no idea what he was implying.
“What do you mean?” I asked, and he shrugged his shoulders.
“I mean, has she called him since you rescued her? Has she asked for a phone or requested to make a phone call so she can get in touch with him? After all, wouldn’t she want him to know that she’s safe?” Commando’s voice seeped into my brain as his words registered. I had my brows crossed as I glared at him a little more.
“Well?” he urged me when I hadn’t replied and my eyes glazed over. No, Valentina hadn’t spoken to her father yet. Even after she had chance after chance, she hadn’t asked to speak to him. If he was that important to her, and if she trusted in him as much as I thought she did, why hadn’t she called him yet?
I shook my head as I stared at Commando and a smile flickered on his face. He let out a deep happy sigh.
“Somethin’ to think about, King. The girl has chosen you,” he said and tipped his bottle over so that he drank the rest of his beer in one gulp.
King (Rogue Rebels MC) Page 7
